Revision3 Revives Videogame Show

For veteran videogame journalists Matt Chandronait and Ryan O'Donnell, producing a videogame review show for the Web was a dream job. Their weekly "1 UP Show" blended wry sketches with high-minded conversations about the art of videogames and had a small but devoted audience.

Then, last December, UGO Networks, which owned "1 UP Show," cancelled the series because it could not figure out how to attract meaningful advertising revenues from such a small pool of viewers. Fans were so distraught that they donated $17,000 to Chandronait's new production company, but "1 UP Show" was not revived.

Today, thanks to a new distribution deal with Web video pioneer Revision3, the beloved videogame series is reborn. The series, renamed "Co-Op," will post every Tuesday to www.revision3.com/coop and will be syndicated via BitTorrent and iTunes. The launch of "Co-Op" marks a strategic shift for Revision3 to more narrowly targeted, niche-focused programming. The company was launched in 2004 by Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson, founders of the social news aggregator Digg, with the goal of producing a broad array of original, full-length Web shows focused on subjects loosely related to technology and the Web.

Early on, Revision3 created shows that had broad appeal, as well as series that were focused on a narrow group of viewers sharing one particular obsession. Among its most popular shows are "Totally Rad Show" (movies, videogames and comic book reviews) and "Systm" (do-it-yourself gadget building).

Recently, Revision3 has decided to put even more focus on shows that have limited, well-defined audiences. "With so many different kinds of media available, you have to give viewers something that speaks directly to them,'' says Ryan Vance, Revision3's vice president of programming.

Revision3 had been searching for a videogame show when Vance saw a few episodes of Chandronait and O'Donnell's "1 UP Show." After meeting the recently fired journalists, Vance was impressed with their knowledge of digital media. (O'Donnell attended film school at the University of California, San Diego; Chandronait studied animation for games and reads voraciously on esoteric subjects like "persuasive game" theory.)

Having knowledgeable hosts is critical to maintaining an engaged audience, who will stream the show every week and publicize it on Twitter, Facebook and personal blogs.

With a steady viewership of hardcore gamers, Revision3 believes it can forge lucrative advertising agreements, similar to those attached to its other shows. For series like "Diggnation," companies like GoDaddy,
Netflix
and
Anheuser-Busch InBev
s Michelob pay about $80 per thousand viewers for the hosts to give a quick mention to the advertisers products. Web video ads run for $43 per thousand viewers on average, according to a study published last fall by eMarketer.

So far,
Electronic Arts
has agreed to advertise its new "Godfather II" game on "Co-Op," and Web-site-building service SquaredSpace has signed on as a sponsor. With big-name advertisers in place, Chanadronait and ODonnell are no longer asking fans for donations.